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Much to the surprise of the photographer, Tim Newton, the cats recently made their return.

Newton lives on the edge of Chugach State Park near Anchorage, and this time, his wife Cathy caught the lynxes' visit on video.

At first, when she heard the noise of the cats outside, she thought some kind of bird was the culprit, she said.

"I thought it might be an owl who had taken up residence on our roof. The next morning, I heard the noise again. It sounded like a woodpecker," said Cathy Newton.

When she went downstairs to investigate, she was greeted with a happy surprise — the lynxes were back. Delighted, Newton called her husband to tell him they'd returned and rushed downstairs to film them with her phone. It was hard to capture all the action as the cats rushed about, she said.

"They were so busy, and running everywhere," she said. "Out to the lawn, back on the deck. Two of them were fight playing and one knocked the other off the deck. Mom rushed over to look through the railing to make sure baby was alright. Then, here comes baby, flying up onto the railing from below!"

In the video, five kittens can be seen playing with their mother on the porch while two more were roughhousing in the yard, Tim Newton said, adding that they played for over an hour and have since returned for more visits.

Tim Newton told Hearst Television that when the lynxes paid their first visit to his house, he glimpsed one of them and thought it was his neighbor's pet cat.

"I took a second look and realized it wasn't a full-grown cat but a baby lynx. They're about the same size at this age," he said.

Since photographing the cats on their first visit, Tim and Cathy have made a calendar of the photos that they've mailed to people in 10 countries, according to Tim. He said he's happy so many people seem to love the lynx and Alaska.

The couple said they were overjoyed the lynxes came back.

"I was just spellbound," said Cathy. "There are no words possible for how beautiful they are."